Why We Can’t Choose to Walk Away from Politics

It fills the airwaves. It dominates every newspaper and evening broadcast you watch. It’s creeping around every corner in the form of conversations amongst your co-workers. Your response is usually a weird, contradictory blend of “What could I do?” and “Don’t get me started”, and you keep quiet because you’re not sure which of those aftertastes you’ll walk away from an argument with.

Presidential politics.

Ugh.

Especially this election cycle. What a buzzkill.

It makes you wish desperately for the arrival of mid-November, so we can be done with it all for four years. Well, three. Like Christmas, the season seems to start earlier each time.

We each have a vote. But being one vote amongst three hundred million doesn’t exactly imbue us with a feeling of real power. Add the fact that our actual influence in Washington has been slowly sapped, and it’s understandable to feel not just helpless, but mad. An emotion that has either dominated the minds of some and frozen others out entirely.

Am I the only one who thinks we need a reorientation? Like, yesterday?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-38)

Ah. Of course. You couldn’t ask for a better reorientation than the fact that God is our anchor. Nothing can separate us from his love – or from his hand.

But…now what? What do we do with that holy strength that has been made ours?

Conquerors are usually soldiers. Soldiers have tools, which helps take away their fear. Their commander doesn’t just throw them in; he equips and trains them. They have good reason to expect success. This is why a soldier needn’t run from battle just because it’s brutal. We’d understand if they did, but we’d also be left without their protection. Because soldiers also have a cause.

And like a soldier (we are all soldiers in the service of Christ, whether we like the idea or not), we must let that cause supersede our fear and drive our actions.

The common figure is this: 3,000 American children are aborted every day. That means that three unborn children have been terminated in the womb since you started reading this article. In this country alone. I rounded up, since a great many abortions are not reported.

Yes, this is another “vote pro-life” article. And I’m not ashamed at all in writing it.

I understand that many people have placed “fixing Washington” as this year’s priority, salvaging our influence from the grip of lobbyists, cronyism, and campaign spending. I understand their anger. In fact, I fully agree that the Republican party should probably be burned to the ground with ceremony and replaced with something purer. The issue is a real one and I cannot deny it. Nor can I deny some Christians’ impulses in other directions – for example, those who see social welfare as a means to fulfill Jesus’ plans for the poor.

But like a soldier who hears the bullets whizzing past, I cannot ignore the three unborn children, either.

Except now it’s four.

My dear friends…when it comes to supporting presidential candidates, I implore you that we might not have time to make this all about “bringing down the establishment”. There are simply bigger fish to fry.

There is a very real case that the duty-bound Christian cannot so freely prioritize other issues over abortion. You are free to disagree, of course. Some inevitably will. But consider that no social ill violates the Ten Commandments anywhere near as brazenly and egregiously as abortion. It’s not even close. Once born, a child can be rescued from poverty and injustice. The unborn never get the chance. Amidst all the things that might qualify as things that are Caesar’s, justice and life are things that are clearly God’s. It’s not the health care battle that demons are delving into. The uncertain economy is not directly murdering humans with gruesome, intentional efficiency.

Five.

And lest despair rise up as you face the monolithic task before us, let me say…we are winning. Abortion rates have dropped annually since 1980 and are continuing to decline.

This hasn’t come from sitting on our couches and voting Republican every four years. It isn’t the increasing Christianization of our nation, because no such thing is happening. You could probably attribute a little of it to the availability and effectiveness of contraceptives, but not the bulk.

No…this is prayer. Prayer and action. I’ve seen prayer drive abortion clinics out of towns in the most “Jesus” way possible: starving them of business by offering alternatives, ones which defend the lives of the unborn and surround young mothers with love and care.

What could be more encouraging than the real availability of victory?

Support a presidential candidate who will defend life. Support one who will appoint Supreme Court justices that do the same – the next president will likely be appointing more than one. Support a candidate who makes the unborn a key plank of his campaign and will fight for them even at the expense of his own future, and not just one who supports life as a partisan convenience.

Jesus wins battles when his people cooperate. This isn’t an evil we have to roll over and accept until he returns.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but…against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:10-12)

This isn’t metaphor or poetry. God calls his people to action. He equips us, empowers us, and seals us against eternal harm. He calls us into arenas that make us uncomfortable, but he offers his strength.

Accept that strength. Allow it to enable you for the political arena, bringing both grace and truth into your words and actions, as you speak to that social media audience that would leave your great-great-grandparents green with envy.